Academic Research
A tremendous amount of academic research has been conducted on numerous topics regarding male well-being. We believe this evidence-based approach to understanding the issues can further help us as we view current events through a male gender lens. From education to male physical and mental health, anti-male bias in the criminal justice system, and other topics, Men’s E-News collects links and summaries to some of the best research here to share here with our readers.
Education Research
Title: The Gender-Equality Paradox in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education
Publication: Psychological Science
Authors: Gijsbert Stoet, David C. Geary
Link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797617741719
Summary: “The underrepresentation of girls and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is a continual concern for social scientists and policymakers. Using an international database on adolescent achievement in science, mathematics, and reading (N = 472,242), we showed that girls performed similarly to or better than boys in science in two of every three countries, and in nearly all countries, more girls appeared capable of college-level STEM study than had enrolled…A mediation analysis suggested that life-quality pressures in less gender-equal countries promote girls’ and women’s engagement with STEM subjects.”
Men’s E-News Comment: The study shows that in countries where women have fewer life choices available, such as Algeria, more women enroll in STEM education, as opposed to countries like Norway, where fewer women do. This goes directly against that narrative that in Western countries that women don’t enroll in certain STEM fields, such as computer engineering, due to some sort of societal anti-female bias. When given more choices in life such as is the case in western countries, FEWER women enroll in fields such as computer science.
Anti-male Bias in Hiring Decisions
Title: Gender Discrimination in Hiring: Evidence from a Cross-National Harmonized Field Experiment
Publication: European Sociological Review, Volume 38, Issue 3, June 2022, Pages 337–354
Authors: Gunn Elisabeth Birkelund, Bram Lancee, Edvard Nergård Larsen, Javier G Polavieja, Jonas Radl, Ruta Yemane
Link: Oxford Academic
Summary: “Gender discrimination is often regarded as an important driver of women’s disadvantage in the labour market…Our findings suggest that although employers operate in quite different institutional contexts, they regard female applicants as more suitable for jobs in female-dominated occupations, ceteris paribus, while we find no evidence that they regard male applicants as more suitable anywhere.”
Men’s E-News Comment: In short, the study found anti-male discrimination against applicants in female dominated jobs, but no anti-female discrimination toward applicants in male dominated jobs.
Anti-male Bias in the Criminal Justice System
Title: Benevolent Sexism in Judges
Publication: 58 San Diego L. Rev. 101 (2021) Cornell Legal Studies Research Paper 21-32
Authors: Jeffrey John Rachlinski and Andrew J. Wistrich
Link: https://digital.sandiego.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3406&context=sdlr
Summary: “Previous research suggests that judges make more favorable rulings for female litigants in family court cases and in criminal sentencing. Although such trends might arise from real differences between men and women, they might also arise from stereotypes that cause judges to favor mothers over fathers and to show leniency towards female defendants. We tested for benevolent sexism among 714 sitting trial judges with two experiments in which we presented judges with hypothetical cases in which we only varied the gender of the litigants. In a family court case, we found judges were more apt to grant a request to allow relocation by a mother than by an otherwise identical father. In a criminal case, we found that judges sentenced a female defendant to less prison time than an otherwise identical male defendant. The results demonstrate that judges engage in benevolent sexism towards female litigants in common legal settings.”
Title: Estimating Gender Disparities in Federal Criminal Cases
Publication: U. of Mich. Law School, Law and Econ. Res. Paper Ser., Paper No. 12-018 (Aug. 2012)
Author: Sonja B. Starr
Link: https://repository.law.umich.edu/law_econ_current/57/
Summary: “…after controlling for the arrest offense, criminal history and other variables, “men receive 63 percent longer sentences on average than women” and “women are . . . twice as likely to avoid incarceration if convicted.”).”
Title: Nebraska must address gender bias
Publication: Omaha World Herald (Dec. 14, 2016)
Author: Chris Johnson
Link: https://omaha.com/opinion/chris-johnson-nebraska-must-address-gender-bias/article_8f217651-0bcf-5fb4-859a-c845b65df6ba.html
Summary: “These [gender] disparities also occur in Nebraska state courts. … Nothing in these [factually similar] cases explains why the men involved should have received sentences that were 500 percent to 600 percent longer than the women did for comparable crimes.”
Title: Examining the Impact of Ecological Contexts on Gender Disparity in Federal Sentencing
Publication: 36 Justice Qtrly 466 (2018)
Authors: Byungbae Kim, Xia Wang and Hyunjung Cheon
Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07418825.2018.1463388
Summary: “Gender disparity in sentencing outcomes has been well established in literature. Recent research has increasingly paid attention to social contexts within which judicial decision-making occurs. This study combines these two lines of research by dissecting the nature of gender disparity through ecological lenses. Using 2008–2010 federal sentencing data, we examine the roles of religious and political conservatism in affecting gender-based sentencing disparity. We find that religious and political conservatism reduces gender disparity, with the female discount dissipating in court communities with higher levels of religious and political conservatism. We also find that the conditioning effects of both religious conservatism and political conservatism on gender disparity further interact with race, with black female defendants more likely to be influenced by religious and political conservatism than their white counterparts. Overall, this study contributes to sentencing literature by demonstrating that gender disparity is deeply entrenched in the ecological contexts of court communities.”
Title: Leniency for Lethal Ladies: Using the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model to Examine Gender-Based Sentencing Disparities
Publication: 23 Homicide Stud. 319 (2019)
Author: Emma E. Fridel
Link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1088767919867420
Summary: “Research has shown that female offenders typically receive differential treatment in the criminal justice system in comparison to their male counterparts, even for extreme crimes like murder. This study compares the criminal sentences of 300 homicide offenders who killed at least two victims with a single co-offender (150 pairs) within their dyads using the actor–partner interdependence model (APIM) to determine if gender has an effect on leniency for even the most extreme crimes. Women were less likely to receive the harshest possible punishment, regardless of their partner’s gender. These findings provide support for the female leniency effect, suggesting that gender bias continues to influence sentencing decisions for homicide.”
Title: Do Judicial Responses to Restraining Order Requests Discriminate Against Male Victims of Domestic Violence?
Publication: 24 J. Fam. Viol. 625 (2009)
Authors: Henry J. Muller, Sarah L. Desmarais and John M. Hamel
Link: https://www.verbalabusejournals.com/pdf/research/court-custody/restraining%20orders.pdf
Summary: “A study of domestic violence restraining orders found “judges were almost 13 times more likely to grant a TRO requested by a female plaintiff against her male intimate partner, than a TRO requested by a male plaintiff against his female partner.”
Title: Gender roles highlight gender bias in judicial decisions
Publication: Society for Personality and Social Psychology
Author: ScienceDaily
Link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180403085049.htm
Summary: “Judges may be just as biased or even more biased than the general public in deciding court cases where traditional gender roles are challenged, according to a new study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. This problem isn’t limited to judges.”
Title: Estimating Gender Disparities in Federal Criminal Cases
Publication: U. of Mich. Law School, Law and Econ. Res. Paper Ser., Paper No. 12-018 (Aug. 2012)
Author: Sonja B. Starr
Link: https://repository.law.umich.edu/law_econ_current/57/
Summary: “These [gender disparity] estimates are much larger than those of prior studies, which have probably substantially understated the sentence gap by filtering out the contribution of pre-sentencing discretionary decisions. In particular, this study highlights the key role of sentencing factfinding, a prosecutor-dominated stage that existing disparity research ignores.”
Title: Sexual victimization perpetrated by women: Federal data reveal surprising prevalence
Publication: 34 J. Aggression and Violent Behavior 302, 309 (2017)
Authors: Lara Stemple, Andrew Flores and Ilan H Meyer
Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359178916301446
Summary: “Even when a report is successfully rendered to police, female perpetrators [of sexual violence] are less likely to be charged and prosecuted and more likely to be diverted to social services.”
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